Ruined Country
by Black Sword
Summary: Satera has been annihilated. In the rubble of the ruined country begins another quest.  Two parts: historical piece, followed by story
1. Chapter 1

_A great sea divides the world of Landen in two. The western section is the Kingdom of Satera, while the namesake Kingdom of Landen holds the east and the islands in the sea. Thanks to their Orakian heritage, the two kingdoms share similar customs, traditions and laws. A realm of lakes, mountains, and forests, it is wealthy in raw materials and agriculture._

_Society in both lands is divided into three sections: at the top reigns the king, the source of power and the impetus of government. Next are the nobles who govern fiefs in the name of their king. At the bottom are the merchants, artisans, and farmers that compose the majority of the populace._

_The power of the king is the ultimate authority over the realm, but can vary from one king to the next. The direct tools of rule are exemplified in appointed positions such as the chancellor, the treasurer, and other retainers that are understood to act in the place of their master, but governance is not limited to the monarch. The Kings of Landen and Satera were traditionally expected to consult with their powerful subjects on matters of general policy and obtain some degree of consent to the royal will. Failure to do so carried the inherent risk of alienating important men and losing their loyalty, an already tenuous quality._

_However, even at the weakest ebb of their power a century ago, the family of the Kings of Landen has always been secure in their tenure of the throne. Even when the institution of the Crown was little more than a joke, the only ones who could conceivably wear it were the members of House Sa Riik, descended from Orakio himself._

_In the generation before the Champions' War, House Sa Riik and the Crown were enjoying a resurgence in their authority. The battlefield efforts of King Saiki III had brought the worst excesses of the nobility under control, while the ascension of King Rhys III brought with it the rediscovery of the existence of other worlds as well as of Layan kingdoms. In the first documented success of its kind, while only heir to his father's throne, King Rhys nearly single-handedly brought an end to the wars between the Orakian land of Agoe and the Layan domains of Cille and Shusoran in the world of Aquatica. _

_Armed with the sobriquet of the strongest Orakian warrior and marriage to the heiress of Satera, the future Queen Lena, King Rhys' ascension to the Landenian throne allowed him to force his subjects to accept the peace agreements and treaties he had gained with Agoe, Cille, and Shusoran. Trade, conducted by caravan thrice a year and a large fair in Aquatica every seven years, flourished between the two worlds. As access to Aquatica was controlled by the Sapphire held by House Sa Riik, the Crown grew substantially wealthier._

_This wealth was neither hoarded nor wasted; raised by his warlord father, King Rhys perceived that the existence of other worlds meant hostile belligerents far stronger than Landen could invade at any time. Presented with that logic, Landen's nobles grudgingly assented to the expansion of forces under direct royal control. Resources were dedicated toward the rediscovery, reactivation, and replication of the most advanced of Orakio's ancient war machines, an effort led by the Chief Engineer Jos Arl, an Agoen who had left his homeland to serve the Kings of Landen. _

_These efforts were accelerated when the first caravan in the fifteenth year of King Rhys' reign discovered the annihilation of Cille and Shusoran in the calamity known as the Dragon's Loss. Wary that such a powerful enemy might turn his eyes on Landen, King Rhys sealed his kingdom from Aquatica. Judging the ancient defenses around the sea designed to protect Landen from invasion by Satera obsolete, King Rhys removed those forces to other places most likely to be the route of invasion, concentrating the bulk of his strength around the closed Landen-Aquatica passage. This pre-emptive move was not mimicked by his counterpart, King Askle VII, father of Queen Lena. That decision was to have far-reaching consequences in the near-future._

Excerpt from _The Champions' War_

Kara Kay Eshyr

Princess of Dahlia


	2. Chapter 2

The smell of smoke was suffocating as a gray haze hovered over the ruins of Satera. Mieu stood on the battlements of Castle No Satera. As far as the eye could see, the blackened remains of wooden supports denoted where houses and buildings had once stood, while broken stone forlornly tried to support walls that no longer existed. Fires still raged in parts of the city even as stray monsters continued to roam the streets.

Things were not much better within the castle, battered by claws and Techniques. Streaks of soot and gouges in the stone scarred the interior. Priceless paintings had been torn to shreds. Statues and other works of art had been shattered beyond repair. The gardens had been scorched. The broken branches and trunks of trees blocked the walkways. The corpses of soldiers and civilians alike littered the grounds, while the mingled stench of roasted flesh and rot wafted through the wrecked halls, the aroma of decay and defeat.

The sight of ruin was a familiar one. During the Devastation War, dozens of cities had been sacked, most of them more than once. Even Landen had been put to the torch. But the stealth, cunning, logistical planning, and absolute brutality that characterized this particular attack had all the hallmarks of Lune, Laya's general. Rumors had raced across Landen assigning the blame for the attack to the ancient warlord, but there was no proof, just claims that the army that had annihilated Satera had carried Laya's standard alongside Lune's banner of a white moon on a field of red. Mieu had gotten tired of pointing out that the Sa Riik emblem was Lord Orakio's golden sunburst on black, yet no one expected Lord Orakio to be in command of armies marching under that banner.

Mieu sighed before she continued down the broken defenses. Half of Landen's garrison had been sent to evacuate any survivors. The other half remained at Orakio's Keep while Rhys recalled his armies from their fortresses elsewhere. Everything moved toward war once again.

She wasn't worried about Landen's chances against the Layan horde that had sacked Satera. Jos Arl's technical expertise had been invaluable in turning a motley collection of third-rate machines into the equal of any of Lord Orakio's frontline armies. Add to that Rhys' natural instinct for war, and the Layan commander that even now rampaged across the western half of this world had an unpleasant surprise waiting for him.

Ahead of her, the indefatigable Wren stood next to a brown-haired man sitting against the parapet. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and powerfully built, a young giant far larger than his father, let alone the mother who had birthed him. His head rested within the crenel while brown eyes stared sightlessly into the blue sky; their warmth had disappeared into pools of grief when word had arrived about the death of the King of Satera. On his lap he held a double-edged great sword, a weapon he handled as easily as his mother used a dagger. But for the white armor he had donned, he looked just like any other shell-shocked Sateran soldier.

"Hey, Mieu," Nial said listlessly.

"Hey yourself," Mieu said gently as she crouched near Rhys' heir. "Are you feeling alright?"

Nial shook his head, perhaps answering her question, perhaps denying anything was wrong. Either way, it worried her. Rhys had sent his son to investigate the ruins and try to confirm the identity of the unknown attacker, but the young prince had said very little ever since they had arrived. That was no surprise, as he had never before seen war. The last conflict within Landen had been a minor uprising in the south shortly after Rhys' coronation, early on in Lena's pregnancy. The troops that accompanied Nial included veterans from that campaign, but the truth of the matter was simple: no one in Landen today could be prepared for an atrocity on this level.

What bothered her most was that his ever-present smile seemed to have been permanently snuffed out.

"I didn't recognize Gramps or old cousin Greck. The monsters ripped them apart. At least Gramps is resting in the royal catacombs now," Nial said, his voice still lifeless.

Mieu nodded mutely. Greck Le Gaede had been Chancellor of Landen. Rhys had sent his first cousin to Satera to once again attempt to persuade old King Askle to remove his forces from their ancient fortresses on the shore and toward the south. So long as the old king had lived, Rhys could not give commands to the western half of the world, only hector. Had the old king only listened, this could all have been avoided. It would have been farcical if it had not led to such a tragic ending.

"Mom's Queen of Satera now, huh? Makes my old man King of Satera, too," Nial said. His face crumpled. "Why did he have to die?"

It was the cry of a little boy mourning a beloved and indulgent grandfather. Mieu stroked Nial's brown hair gently as tears silently streamed down the prince's face. If she could have protected her master's heirs from the bitter agonies of reality, she would have. But that was beyond her power, something she was forced to acknowledge every time it happened. A millennium ago, a little boy screamed for his dead mother as Mieu held him. A generation ago, another young man grieved for his dying father as Mieu stood wordlessly beside him. Each time, she had been powerless before the sorrow.

Pain filled her as she remembered her big sister Miun, her mind lost to insanity for a thousand years as she wept for their lost lord. Palman or android, it never became easier.

"If I could suffer your pain for you, I would," she said sadly.

Nial looked at her for a moment before he closed his eyes. His jaw worked silently as he restrained his grief. "Who could have done this? There was no honor in this."

"This style of warfare...is not honorable," Mieu said carefully. "It does not belong in this era."

Brown eyes focused on her. "Did it belong in yours?"

"It does not belong in any era," Mieu replied firmly.

"But it happened in yours?" he pressed.

When she said nothing, Nial turned to Wren. "Did this happen in your era, Wren?"

The giant android looked at the prince, that pallid complexion a match for his unfazed expression. "Yes, Master Nial."

"Why?"

"It was how Siren and Lune fought."

It was how babies were born. It was how children were raised. Only Wren could make the brutality of total warfare sound as banal as the facts of life.

"Siren. Lune. Orakio's general. Laya's general. Does that mean... that they're still alive?"

"I don't think so," Mieu interjected. "Siren would never have passed a millennium quietly. Lune would be over a thousand years old by now, impossible for a mortal. More than likely, this attack was done by some heir of Lune's legacy from a world where they're still fighting the Devastation War."

"I see," Nial said. He said nothing for a time, his hands on his weapon. "There's a report that the monsters are coming from a cave to the south. How did they get here without being spotted?"

Wren answered the rhetorical question. "Sneak attack accomplished via concealed, rapid movement through rugged terrain. The mountains and forests of Satera served to conceal their presence. Any Saterans unfortunate enough to come across the Layan army would have been silenced permanently. The lack of southward facing defenses only facilitated their movement."

"Thank you, Wren," Nial said as he stood up. On his feet, the young giant was as large as Wren, something few Palmans could claim. Nial stared out across the demolished city, at destroyed buildings and empty lots where homes had once stood. The air seemed to have adopted the color gray as a cloak. A vagrant breeze brought the smell of soot as it stirred Nial's white cape. The breeze died.

"Our danger increases the longer we remain here," Mieu reminded him. She wanted nothing better than to give him time and space to grieve, but it was not unknown for a place to be attacked twice for the specific purpose of slaughtering rescuers. Rhys had specifically charged her and Wren to care for Nial, something she would have done without being told. "We can't stay here much longer."

"I wonder if they've found all the survivors?" Nial murmured.

"Highly probable," Wren said in his monotone. "Rate of survival decreases with time."

Mieu winced, but Nial did not seem to react to that depressing fact. He unconsciously adopted a combat stance. "Wren, issue the order to begin withdrawal. How many supplies do we have, Mieu?"

"For yourself? More than enough for a long trip," Mieu said suspiciously. "What are you thinking?"

"My old man told me to find out who attacked us. We're going to pass the order for the Sateran garrisons to abandon the shore defenses, and then we're infiltrating the southern cave these invaders are coming from."

Taken aback, Mieu could only stare at the determination in Nial's voice. "By ourselves?"

"It's harder to find three people than it is to find an army."

"But if we're caught, you could be killed!" Mieu objected.

Stony brown eyes met her gaze. "I failed my people and Gramps, Mieu. I should have protected them. My old man has to defend Landen and the survivors of Satera, and a war can't be won by defense. We're the only ones who can do it."

That was the reason he gave, but Mieu wasn't fooled. She had helped raise Landen's heir and knew what drove him. Nial had internalized the fall of Satera as his fault. He rejected the very idea that there was nothing he could have done to prevent it. It was their duty to defend their people; there were no excuses for failure. The only redemption was to defeat the enemy.

Mieu stared out at the city. The Layan army would be doing the same throughout Satera, turning the fertile land into a ruined country. The longer they delayed, the worse the damage would be. It was even possible that the entire kingdom would be left so devastated that it would never recover.

"I'll prepare for our departure," she finally said. She might not be able to shield the child she had raised from life's pain, but she would definitely protect his back.


End file.
